ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the historical development and HRM and Well-Being at Work research. Historically, the treatment of employees can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution in England in the eighteenth century with welfare paternalist employers viewing the health and welfare of their employees as their responsibility. Taylor’s Scientific Management viewed team working and work consultation as unnecessary and undesirable, with managers being responsible for task performance. However, the ‘human relations’ movement was associated with a ‘people-focused’ side of management, viewing psychosocial factors as important in understanding and influencing well-being at work and workplace performance. HRM replaced a welfare-based personnel management and is distinctive with a strategic focus. Well-being is a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and psychological functioning (Ryan and Deci, 2001). The growth in the field of well-being in the UK is evidence by the expansion of interest academically within organisations and government-commissioned research on well-being to provide empirical evidence on the promotion of health and well-being of Britain’s working age population. A multidimensional well-being domains that considers the individual, group and organisation dimensions within the employment relationship is developed from literature. These well-being paradigms have implications for the quality of working life, mental health, fairness perceptions, sickness absence, stress reduction, positive well-being and performance. This chapter and the research and discussion presented in this book seeks to contribute to the debate in these areas.
